My post of May 23 reported a problem with the Dreamhost server not=20
forwarding emails, and it seems to have happened again. No emails for =
almost=20
the past 4 hours. I sent a test email to my direct Verizon account and=20
received it immediately, so all else is working. I'm not so much =
concerned=20
if my websites are down, although that's bad enough. But I rely on my =
emails=20
and having a four hour delay is a real problem. And last time it was =
more=20
than 24 hours before the emails started trickling in. And that is=20
unacceptable.

I had considered 1&1 last time, but Dreamhost seemed to be OK and I was =
paid=20
up until August. But now that renewal is about to occur, and because of =
this=20
recent problem, I'm more inclined to switch.

But I'm not sure just how the email forwarding works, and if a =
dual-server=20
like http://www.1and1.com/ will enhance the reliability. I assume this =
is=20
part of the DNS? Can I have domain name servers from multiple providers =
that=20
would route the mail if another server is down? Or does the DNS just=20
acknowledge receipt of the email and keep it even though it has not been =

successfully passed on?

I'm not sure how the process works. Previously I had the email =
forwarding=20
(and domain forwarding) set up by my domain registrar www.Mydomain.com. =
But=20
I think the Dreamhost forwarding had some desirable features that were =
not=20
available there. I know it was a bit of a hassle to set up. Any =
suggestions?

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

Just an update, Email forwarding still not working as of 12:35 AM EDT=20
6/27/12. I called the tech support line at www.1and1.com and actually =
talked=20
to a live support guy without having to even have an account much less =
pay=20
for the privilege as is the custom now at Dreamhost. So, maybe I'll get =
a=20
response eventually on my Dreamhost support ticket and hopefully they'll =
fix=20
the forwarding problem, but as soon as I get the confirmation from 1&1 =
I'm=20
going to go with them.

I got a full business hosting package which includes a free domain name =
and=20
unlimited everything, for $4.95/month, 90 day money back guarantee, and=20
after one year it becomes $9.99/month. Hopefully their email forwarding =
will=20
be more reliable.

I'm still not sure if I can set up multiple DNS for redundancy. Anybody =
know=20
how that works?

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

I still have to figure out how to set up the various domains like I did =
in=20
Dreamhost, and the email forwarding. I'll do that a bit later. Time to =
get=20
some sleep. Hopefully email will be restored by the time I wake up, and =
then=20
I'll get on with other things. I don't want or need anything huge or =
fancy.=20
I just want it to WORK!

BTW, is there an easy way to transfer my files from Dreamhost to 1&1 =
without=20
going through my local machine? They are mostly copied from files on my=20
computer but I don't have a complete and up-to-date "mirror". I wonder =
if=20
the web based FTP applications can FTP files from server to server?

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

P E Schoen wrote:

In your situation I think the best bet is to FTP to your Dreamhost
server and download the entire site to a new folder on your local
machine and then FTP upload it to 1and1. BTW, I've been with 1and1 for
years and love them.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net /
If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried
before.

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

Ed Mullen wrote:

And if using cPanel, you can download a compressed backup of all
folders, all databases, and all email settings, separately or together.
You can then use those to restore at the new site (again, if using cPanel).

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

Moving from Dreamhost to 1&1 is a bit of a frying pan => fire move, really.
You're exchanging a system which has its glitches and problems, but where
the support staff know what they're doing and are capable of understanding
technical requests, to one which is a bit more stable but with customer
support that is truly incompetant on almost every level.

You can ftp via the command line after logging in to either the Dreamhost
or 1&1 shell account via ssh. But a better way of mass-transferring a large
number of files is to use rsync.

(I'm assuming that 1&1 does allow ssh access and supports standard cli
tools such as rsync; if that's not the case then they wouldn't be suitable
for any website that's more than a plaything anyway).

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

<snip>

Forgive me if you already know this, but the way it works for mail is that
each domain can have one or more mail (mx) record defined for it, each of
these have a priority so if a sending mail server cannot deliver to the
first mail record then it tries the second and so on, if they all fail then
the sending mail server should retry later before eventually giving up.

Looking at the mx records for the 1&1 server I have, I have 2 mx records,
and for your psechoen domain dreamhost also provides 2. At each IP address
there should be a mailserver waiting to receive emails. But ultimatly only
one of these will deliver emails to you (or there might be another server
involved which does the actual delivery) and the other will just hold any
emails until it can forward them to the primary. Also, with both 1&1 and
dreamhost both their mailservers are on the same subnet so if there is a
network issue then it will probably knock both out. BTW both the dreamhost
mailservers seem to be up.

So if your email seems to be down then I suspect that emails are waiting on
their servers and they have an issue with delivery - but I would expect
emails to reach you eventually.

In answer to your question "does the DNS just acknowlege receipt of the
email and keep it ..." - yes - DNS says you have two email servers
listening, one of those will have accepted the email, and it (should) be
being kept pending delivery to you. So even if you had a totally independent
secondary email server it wouldn't help in this instance because emails
almost certainly have been successfully delivered to dreamhost.

If it were me I would (i.) contact dreamhost support - but not by email and
(ii.) move somewhere else - whilst no hosting company will be immune from
problems, if you have repeated problems then its not worth sticking with
them.

Hope this is useful - even if it is just background information. Hope you
get your emails through shortly.
--
Brian Cryer
http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

The emails finally started coming through about 6:00 AM and I also got =
an=20
email from Dreamhost tech support saying they had a problem with their=20
"kungfu" server. They suggested that I use Google's email system:

"There's no way to add different nameservers just for mail delivery,
nameservers are set for the entire domain. We do offer an easy way to
use GMail through Google Apps for your domain's mail service. We're =
happy
hosting your websites, and we know that Google does do a great job at
email. (http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/05/23/what-web-hosting-is-for /)
You can use the DreamHost panel's Mail -> Custom MX / GMail page to
easily switch your domain's DNS records to point to Google's mail
servers. All mail user account setup and administration is done on
Google's website, starting with registering your domain with Google Apps
at <https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/standard/new3 .

I'm not sure I want to go through all that. I think perhaps I should =
provide=20
my direct Verizon email for anything critical, as I already have for my =
bank=20
notices. I got one during the outage. This problem may have happened=20
previously, and I might not have noticed it. But it just so happened I=20
talked to an associate who said he was sending me a link and when I =
checked=20
for it, I saw that my last email had been about 3 hours earlier. So I =
sent=20
test emails and determined that the problem was with the email =
forwarding.

I liked the idea of forwarding so I could keep the same address related =
to=20
my various websites and not have to let people know if I changed =
providers.=20
But the downside is the possibility of a problem in the mail relay =
server.

Most of your reply was new information for me, and very helpful. Thanks.

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

I wouldn't rely on the sender being notified. They might be then again they
might not - it all depends on dreamhost's policy on undelivered email. When
I moved ISPs (not quite the same as hosts), all emails to my old email
address disappeared into a black hole without a NDR being generated, and
hosting companies might be the same - but it probably varies between hosts.

I'd probably play safe and wait for your emails to come through.

When you do change over to 1&1, gmail or whoever, be aware that changes to
DNS can take up to a day to fully propograte so you will need to keep your
old email up and running to overlap for at least a day to be safe.
--
Brian Cryer
http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian

Re: Email forwarding down on Dreamhost. Again. Options? Multiple DNS?

The emails finally started coming through and I was going to make the =
switch=20
in the evening, but as of 4:30 PM EDT they stopped again. I had switched =
on=20
domain and everything seemed to work within 10-20 minutes or maybe an =
hour=20
at most.

This is the third day in a row this has happened, and it's always been =
about=20
the same time of day.

Their www.dreamhoststatus.com page mentions an ongoing hardware upgrade =
but=20
it seems like it should not affect the email forwarding. There are quite =
a=20
few other customers who are having problems with their websites and =
other=20
problems that have persisted for a long time and support has not been=20
helpful.

I think I'll go ahead and change my rarely used domains, and then when =
the=20
emails come through on the main domain I'll just byte the bullet and do =
it=20
as well, hopefully not losing anything important.